According to Statistics Canada, the volume of rail freight carried in Canada totaled 29.8 million tons in August, down 0.8 percent from the same month in 2015. From August 2011 to August 2016, the total volume of rail freight carried in Canada increased 6.6 percent.
In August, freight originating in Canada increased 0.6 percent compared with August 2015 to 27.1 million tons. These shipments were composed of both non-intermodal and intermodal freight.
Non-intermodal freight rose 1.2 percent to nearly 294,000 carloads in August. The amount of freight loaded into these cars totaled 24.2 million tons, up 0.2 percent from the same month in 2015. The gain mainly reflected an increase in loadings of coal (+9.6 percent), other cereal grains (+57.6 percent), potash (+10.9 percent) and lumber (+13.6 percent).
Intermodal freight loadings rose 4.3 percent to just over 200,000 units from August 2015 to August 2016. In terms of weight, intermodal traffic was up 4.5 percent to 2.9 million tons, as the 5.1 percent increase in containers on flat cars offset the 16.1 percent decrease in trailers on flat cars.
Freight traffic received from the United States fell 13.6 percent to 2.7 million tons in August, as a result of a 16.4 percent decrease in non-intermodal freight. Intermodal freight from the United States increased 24.4 percent.